With another potential grocery strike looming in Southern California, shoppers are likely wondering how things will play out.

When will the strike happen? What supermarkets will be affected? Will people have to cross angry picket lines to shop at their favorite stores?

Valid questions, to be sure. But the grocery chains and their employees hope to avoid a strike. And if it does come to that it likely wouldn’t happen right away.

Here’s where things stand:

An estimated 50,000 United Food and Commercial Workers members voted Tuesday to authorize a strike against Ralphs and Albertsons, which also owns Vons, Pavilions and Safeway stores.

Their labor contract expired March 6 and the current offer proposed by Ralphs and Albertsons is inadequate, according to union officials. Information distributed to union members says the offer includes an “insulting wage proposal,” “devastating cuts” to their pension plan and a refusal to increase funding to the workers’ health plan.

Still, UFCW Local 770 President Rick Icaza said everyone involved hopes to avoid a strike.

“We’re doing everything in our power to avoid it,” he said. “It’s a last resort.”

Ralphs has indicated it feels the same way.

“Ralphs is committed to reaching an agreement with union leadership at the one place an agreement can be reached, the bargaining table,” the company said in a statement. “A strike authorization vote is premature and only serves to cause concern for associates and customers.”

The company is encouraging union leadership to return to the table and work out an agreement that is “good for our associates and allows us to remain competitive in the market.”

Stater Bros. Markets, which operates dozens of Inland stores, is not part of these negotiations. In a 2003 dispute between the union and other grocers, the chain said it would accept the labor agreement hammered out by the other grocers.

In fact, the Inland area’s UFCW Local 1167 recommends no action against Stater Bros. on its website, saying, “If you work for Stater Bros., you belong to a company with a remarkable history of working positively with your union. We see no reason for that strong working relationship to change.”

Icaza said the union and the representatives of Ralphs and Albertsons have scheduled 10 meetings through the end of July – meetings that hopefully will provide enough time to address concerns and ultimately hammer out a labor agreement both sides can live with.

“Our goal is avoid a strike,” he said. “We’re going to make every effort to come up with an agreement. But if the final agreement they offer is what we see now … there will be a strike.”

The grocers’ current proposal would provide experienced clerks and meat cutters with one wage hike of 10 cents per hour in March 2017, but no pay increases in 2016 or 2018. They also would receive two bonuses of 10 cents and 15 cents an hour during that period.

The supermarket chains also plan to cut their age 60 early retirement benefit for workers by 40 percent, which would require employees to work until age 65 to get their full pension.

The agreement would additionally not boost funding to the employees’ health plan, a move the union says would force workers to contribute more to their coverage or do without it.

Kevin Smith handles business news and editing for the Southern California News Group, which includes 11 newspapers, websites and social media channels. He covers everything from employment, technology and housing to retail, corporate mergers and business-based apps. Kevin often writes stories that highlight the local impact of trends occurring nationwide. And the focus is always to shed light on why those issues matter to readers in Southern California.